Robin Leonard’s family speaks at Annette Harvey’s sentencing
JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — Annette Harvey’s trial began in February and she was sentenced on Wednesday. The court heard from witnesses as well as Harvey herself.
Robin Leonard’s family was in the courtroom to speak during her sentencing hearing.
“But here, it’s more of an open forum for them to express the impact on their lives and their loved ones, and to tell the defendant what they’ve taken from them,” said Assistant District Attorney Dennis Brooks. “And, you know, I’ve seen times where that that that seemed to give some sense of closure to people.”
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Emotions ran high in court as Robin Leonard’s family read their victim impact statements. Her sister, Amy Grizzel, was first.
“When someone dies suddenly, the loss is felt more and it causes a greater disruption,” she said. “But when someone is stolen from you, and that life is taken, especially by someone who is thought of as a friend of the family, who our family had welcomed into our home, and Robin had walked them in her home many times over the years. I’m not sure there’s ever getting any over that.”
Next, Lara Leonard wanted to set the record straight about her sister:
“The harm that you have brought to this family is reprehensible. Hearing you and your defense paint an inaccurate account of one of the most loving people to ever walk this earth was devastating,” she said. “All the knives in my home are hidden in the kitchen as every time I see one, I cannot help but imagine the fear, terror and pain my sister felt.”
Finally, the person who may have been most impacted by Harvey’s actions is Leonard’s son. He got emotional when he talked about coming to terms with living without his mother.
“I always had my mom…to go from a place where you have one person like that, to have no person like that. That’s where I went to,” he said. “And coming out of this, I’m starting to learn how to have people back in my life. But that took years of life, ruined years of relationships, just gone, evaporated. Just, this didn’t kill my mom. It killed the community.”
The judge sentenced Harvey to serve a life sentence for first-degree murder, plus 10 years for the especially aggravated burglary charge.
Those sentences will be served concurrently.
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